.38-55? WHY should I consider this all but dead caliber?
Posted: 12 Jun 2018 14:34
I'm board.
I've been looking at maybe at some point getting a new lever gun.
Rossi seems to be trickling NOS into the market if anything.
Winchester's are a bit overpriced but they still are pretty, even if no longer affordable.
I notice there's a few .38-55s running around from the Japanese production and I'm wondering if they are worth the trouble?
I recall discussions on this site regarding .375 Winchester being a slightly shortened .38-55 with the pressure run through the roof. I've read Buffalo Bore's statements about their .38-55 ammo being safe for ALL weapons in .375 caliber. I know there was a customer at the shop looking for .375 ammo during the Obama plague and none to be found anywhere at that time and me being unaware of Buffalo Bore's claims and my other 3 sources of oddball ammo failing to have any in stock.
So Buffalo Bore's going for something like $500-$640 per case of 200 rounds.
For your money you get something like 2000FPS in a round that's exceeding spec pressure (matched to something like .30-30 pressures?)
For something like $200 per $200 rounds you can get various 'cowboy' loadings that run around 1250 to maybe 1300 FPS with a lead bullet.
Around $200-250 Winchester puts out a power point at around 1300+/- FPS.
Current gunrag writer thoughts seem to place the gun as adequate against deer sized game at around 125 yards or so. Maybe 150+ with the Buffalo Bore rounds.
Anybody have any load data for anything approaching the high pressure Buffalo Bore loads?
Anybody know how many times the brass is good for use in such loads? My experiences with .30-30 have me somewhat leery of running the brass too many times and I will typically toss bottlenecked brass for the autoloaders after it's been trimmed 4 times or so.
I suspect the lower pressure loads would be more forgiving but as the 94 locks at the rear I expect the brass still stretches a mite.
Any reasons to stay away from such a project?
Better Ideas?
I've been looking at maybe at some point getting a new lever gun.
Rossi seems to be trickling NOS into the market if anything.
Winchester's are a bit overpriced but they still are pretty, even if no longer affordable.
I notice there's a few .38-55s running around from the Japanese production and I'm wondering if they are worth the trouble?
I recall discussions on this site regarding .375 Winchester being a slightly shortened .38-55 with the pressure run through the roof. I've read Buffalo Bore's statements about their .38-55 ammo being safe for ALL weapons in .375 caliber. I know there was a customer at the shop looking for .375 ammo during the Obama plague and none to be found anywhere at that time and me being unaware of Buffalo Bore's claims and my other 3 sources of oddball ammo failing to have any in stock.
So Buffalo Bore's going for something like $500-$640 per case of 200 rounds.
For your money you get something like 2000FPS in a round that's exceeding spec pressure (matched to something like .30-30 pressures?)
For something like $200 per $200 rounds you can get various 'cowboy' loadings that run around 1250 to maybe 1300 FPS with a lead bullet.
Around $200-250 Winchester puts out a power point at around 1300+/- FPS.
Current gunrag writer thoughts seem to place the gun as adequate against deer sized game at around 125 yards or so. Maybe 150+ with the Buffalo Bore rounds.
Anybody have any load data for anything approaching the high pressure Buffalo Bore loads?
Anybody know how many times the brass is good for use in such loads? My experiences with .30-30 have me somewhat leery of running the brass too many times and I will typically toss bottlenecked brass for the autoloaders after it's been trimmed 4 times or so.
I suspect the lower pressure loads would be more forgiving but as the 94 locks at the rear I expect the brass still stretches a mite.
Any reasons to stay away from such a project?
Better Ideas?